


Be As You've Always Been

by Constantine_You_Owe_Me



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, How this scene should have gone for me anyways, Loki - Freeform, One Shot, Other, Thor needs this as much as I do
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 07:52:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18846787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Constantine_You_Owe_Me/pseuds/Constantine_You_Owe_Me
Summary: The scene with Thor and Rocket in Asgard to retrieve the power stone from Jane.Thor takes the chance to calm his heart with a chat to his mother, and she asks one thing of him.





	Be As You've Always Been

**Author's Note:**

> This is self-indulgent but I needed something that included Loki as he is my favourite and I like them being friends. 
> 
> No ConCrit thank. There was no beta because I wrote this in like... an hour or so ahaha. Wild. 
> 
> I wrote this for me and it has been posted here if anyone wants to read it :D

 

 

****

Stepping foot in those familiar golden halls again sent a shiver down Thor's spine. The inevitable calm before the storm and then his life changed forever and he lost those dearest to him.

The palace felt as though it had been built on crumbling foundations and Thor tried to rally himself hoping to find composure. He was so sure the floor would break apart beneath him and he'd fall into a black abyss never setting foot on solid ground again. 

Leaving him with only the feeling of falling for eternity and the world around him becoming nothing more than a faded memory. 

Rocket shuffled at his side grumbling under his breath about wasting time getting nostalgic and they had a future to save. His reminder was ignorant and inelegant and an aching pain slid through Thor's veins and for a second his heart seized in his chest as memories assaulted him-- he had a chance here to ease his soul no matter how selfish it seemed.

Weren’t they all doing something selfish by bending time to retrieve loved ones they missed so dearly?

All he needed was a moment… 

When he opened his eyes Rocket stood before him on a balcony railing blathering on about how there was no time for fear or panic, how everyone had pain they were working through and yet… what were they doing all of this for?

What he had lost he could never hope to regain. 

For a moment it felt as though his pain meant naught. The loss he had suffered merely background information for others to brush aside, or to use an information on where to locate the stones. While they had been allowed to wallow and receive comfort for the loss of those that had faded in the snap.  

“I can't do this…” 

“You're not the only one who lost someone! Pull yourself together, man. This is ridiculous we have a job to do so let's do it!” The racoon continued to be unsympathetic and while Thor understood his reasoning if left him feeling lost and isolated in a place he once called home. A place where once he was strong and the future was bright holding nothing but adventure. 

Now it was as though he were but a stranger hiding in the body of someone who once was great.

_ How the mighty have fallen,  _ He thought as his hands gripped the robe that hung around his hulking form. Another shiver runs down his spine but this time the source was a familiar voice. 

His mother. 

Rocket had already scampered off at this point with the confidence that he was backed up by a warrior. Thor had bottled out at the last moment leaving the mouthy animal to go it alone unbeknownst to said creature. 

Now it was only himself and her voice as it floated down the halls, a great comfort for a short moment.  He felt the ache in his heart grow tenfold as he recalled this day… this was the day he lost her… 

Joy seemed short lived these days. 

“Thor, why are you slinking around the corridors, you look as though you're up to-” Frigga falls silent as she takes in her son's appearance but to her credit and true to her nature she opens her arms to him and allows her son a much needed embrace. 

“You are not from this timeline and so I must ask you why you are here, tell me what brings you to Asgard?” Her voice as soft as he remembers it, so kind and full of a love only a mother had for her child. Her mind was sharp as ever and she had showed no fear as she faced the man that looked like her son but was not as she recalled him from that very morning. 

It drew forth a sob from the blond and he gripped her hand tighter and she led him to a quiet place where they would not be disturbed. 

When seated Thor tries to find words to tell her everything that has happened but he cannot and thankfully she asks that the future remain unknown to her. He sees it in her eyes that she knows tragedy will befall her. How awful it was to see her accepting and understanding the course of fate.

“I'm afraid and lost. I am no longer a man you can be proud of mother.” 

“How is that? How would you know what it is that makes me proud of you?”

“I failed in saving the world. I’ve lost everything and now I live my life without honour.”

“You are in great pain. Why won't you allow yourself time to address that first.”

“There is no time for that!” It would be so easy to take her with him…  _ I cannot. I must leave this reality unchanged. _ Thor gets to his feet with one last look at her he moved for the door, he had to find Rocket and they had to leave. Now. 

He did not trust himself to make the right decision. “I love you, mother.”

“I know this, dear heart. Before you go… visit your brother, please.” Her request worded simply but the words hung heavy around the Norse God. 

It wasn't something he could brush aside and he dearly wanted to see his brother but this was not the same man he had spent time with on Sakaar… Loki still lived with bitterness twisting his heart and he'd sooner strike a dagger into Thor's back than embrace him as his brother. 

But it was a chance to see him again. Even if the silver tongue a razor's edge that cut him deep Thor could not return to his reality without seeing Loki. 

“I will go to him.” 

With that he said goodbye to his mother again for the last time and left for the dungeons to seek out the trickster in his comfortable holding cell. 

The frost giant outright ignored Thor as he approached the barrier instead keeping his attention on the object he tossed up into the air and caught with ease with one hand. 

When Loki realised Thor would not leave he rolled his eyes and sat up, the snarl on his features leaving his expression one of ice and ire broke immediately and he scrambled to his feet forgetting any sort of grace or nonchalance in the presence of his warrior brother. 

“What the bloody hell happened to you?!” Loki choked out, his shock evident in his voice, his brows rose in surprise before his expression settled to one of indifference masking any further emotion. 

There was a beat of silence between them before Loki spoke again. His body tense and his words laced with suspicion. 

“You're definitely Thor…” he began as he eyes the blond stood before him his appearance and behaviour spoke of a man hoping to blend in and he refused to meet Loki's gaze. Positive it was not illusion he spoke again, “Thor, tell me what's going on.” Loki knew he'd regret this gentle tone and berate himself mentally for caring about the state of the oaf later but… something was not right. 

“It is too long to explain and I've not much time, brother.” Thor's voice shook his cheeks pink with shame still unable to look Loki in the eye. “I watched you die.”

The caged Jotun took a step back in surprise though he steadied himself quickly all the while battling to gain the indifference he had displayed not a moment earlier. 

“I am from the future and I saw you die. I saw Asgard die and I saw give your life to protect the people and to protect me. 

But I failed in avenging your death. I failed to honour your sacrifice…” he felt tears at the corners of his eyes and he raised a hand to scrub at his face hoping the movement would distract his tired brain. It allowed him to keep what little dignity he had left before his brother. 

Loki could only stare at the blond. So many things he wished to ask but all words died on his tongue and an odd wave of tenderness washer over him. It had him physically recoil at the sheer ridiculousness of it-- Thor had always been an oaf and a loud mouth… nothing more but he had been those things with confidence and strength! 

The man that stood before him, eyes on the ground hands twisted into the front of his robe… this was not someone Loki recognised and he felt anger bubbling up at the sheer injustice of it. 

Stalking closer to the barrier Loki smashed a fist against it his teeth bared in a snarl. 

“Utter rubbish. If I died it meant that I was sloppy, that I had not prepared for whatever it was that killed me. Magic and skill can only get you so far, brother dearest.” His voice silky as he spoke, the malice in his voice directed at himself. His body near vibrated with bubbling rage and he drew in a breath to steady his voice. “Fate cannot be tangled with unless you are smart and in that moment I must not have been… What I’m trying to say, brother, is that you did not fail me. I failed you.” 

While he had no idea what events caused his death he was sure it had something to do with the tesseract and if he was protecting Thor with it… It meant they had come face to face with a horror.

A horror Loki had hoped to conceal until he himself had been a safe enough distance from. 

Thor stood silent and when he finally looked up to Loki the trickster was staring past him his mind elsewhere. He studied the man before him for the first time in years taking in all the details of his face, he was every inch the prince he said he was, from the way he spoke to the way he held himself… 

Asgard would have flourished with him at the helm, he knew that now but it would never be. 

“Thank you, Loki.” When Loki looked back to him he was frowning but he nodded all the same. “In thousands of other realities you may likely live, you are a trickster, you know how to survive… but in my reality you are gone and it still hurts.”

“You should go you’re getting very sentimental and I still to hold ill will toward this realities Thor, you’re going to make me change my mind if you carry on this way.” 

Back out in the hallway there is a commotion and Rocket comes skidding around the corner holding up a device created to carry the stone, all the while screaming at the top of his lungs. 

“WHERE WERE YOOOOU??? WE GOTTA LEAVE. NOW!!!” Thor grabs up the racoon just before a spear sails past him and pierces the spot where Rocket stood seconds ago.

Home time.


End file.
